While everyone litters, 18–21-year-olds litter the most due to them thinking they don’t have to clean up after themselves. Rianda Mulder, a professor at Saxion Hospitality business school in the Netherlands, did a research study where students said they litter because they are used to their parents cleaning up after them. They also said seeing cleaners on campus makes them more likely to litter because they know they will clean up after them (2016).
Pollini said that she is always seeing people on campus cleaning up so much trash and having them clean is nice to have but they shouldn’t have to clean when students are being disrespectful and leaving trash everywhere. Ellis says it is the student’s decision to litter and should be their responsibility to pick it up as well.
Students should not be littering because they know someone else will pick up after them. Students also love having a clean environment but won’t clean it up themselves. Tezza Anwar a professor at Widyatama University in Indonesia said students litter because after high school there are few rules to enforce throwing away trash. The absence of cleaning activities stops students from throwing away their trash correctly (2017).
After high school, students have very few rules to follow in college, they are not going to get in trouble at a big school where no one is watching your every move. There must be a way to enforce this.
Daher, who was a former boy scout said he use to litter when he was younger but when he joined the boy scouts, he stopped due to their enforcement of leave no trace. He said that he will go out of his way to pick up others’ trash and thinks everyone should be doing this at Gettysburg.
At the University of Pittsburgh Oakland Campus, they use to have “Clean Sweeps “where they cleaned up the trash, but this was too pricy to continue, and the town believes that students should oversee cleaning up after themselves (McNulty 2002).
Citations:
Anwar, T., Saudi, M., Sinaga, O. “Is it hard for college student to throw trash in place?” (October 2017). 187-191
McNulty, T. (2002, Aug 28). Oakland battles college garbage returning students ‘litter fills sidewalks: [Region Edition]. Pittsburgh Post – Gazette Retrieved from http://ezpro.cc.gettysburg.edu:2048/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/oakland-battles-college-garbage-returning/docview/391106064/se-2?accountid=2694
Mulder, R. (2016). 1.2 “Reducing Students’ littering Behaviour by Application of Persuasive Techniques”. Research papers for EuroFM’s 15th research symposium at EFMC2016
